Hi Gene. Well, the new evap fan is working after all...just took some time to reset I suppose.
Unfortunately, I'm seeing some temp variances in both the frig and the freezer sections. The temp reading stabilized on the frig side, and has been at 34 degrees for about 8 hours now...however...I thought the milk, etc felt a little warm as it had moisture on the outside of the plastic container, so I put in a thermometer on the top shelf and it reads 55 degrees, or a 21 degree variance. Surely this isn't normal?
A short while after replacing the frig side evap fan, the freezer started having issues.
It was set at '0 degrees' for a couple of hours and was operating fine, then suddenly it seemed to 'turn-off' and warm up to 20+degrees rather quickly. I've never seen it do this before. I opened the door, held the door button closed and verified that the freezer side evap fan was working properly, thinking it might have the same issue as the frig side. The fan was working.
I removed the food, opened up the evap cover and the evap was NOT frozen over, just typical 'frost' on the coils.
I gave it a few minutes, cleaned up everything and replaced the food, (making sure that there was plenty of room for air-flow in the rear of the compartment), and replaced the evap cover. I set the temp to 0 degrees and turned on the 'Power Cool' and it cooled down to 0 degrees after about 3 hours of the door being closed. It's stayed that way for a few hours now, however I'm worried that it will do this routine again. Also, I just took the internal freezer temp with the thermometer and it's only 32 degrees yet the display reads '0' and is NOT flashing.
What do you think might be the issue? A temp sensor or the control unit (PCB) possibly? I'm not sure how the thermistors work, but could they be the problem? Obviously the control panel is NOT reading the correct internal temps of either side.
Thanks again for your help!
Jim
*Update: it's now the next morning (10+ hrs later) and the frig side is at 43° (top shelf) and 38° (third shelf) on my internal thermometer, so the variance vs. the display (which is still set at 34°) is only 9° and 4° respectively. The freezer is down to 0° on my internal thermometer (top wire shelf) and 0° on the display, so the freezer side seems to be ok for now. Are these typical variances for the frig side?
**Update #2: later in the evening, several hours later, I cleaned/dusted the coils in the rear of the frig and replaced the cover and pushed it back into place. Almost immediately, the frig temp display started blinking. I let it sit for about 3 hrs, then did a reset by powering down the frig for 10 mins, then plugged it in. Got error code '3'. Temp VERY gradually went down to 41° over a few more hrs, then this morning about 11:00am it was back into the 50's, and is now at 61°. Internal temp on my thermometer is at about 55° on the 2nd shelf. I'm pretty convinced at this point that there's a problem somewhere in a temp sensor, thermistor, PCB. What do you think?
***Update #3: the frig side has continued to go UP & DOWN in temp over the last 15+ hours. It will go up to 65° stay there for a few hours, and then down to 38°, and then do it all again.
****Also, any idea on the bulb issue? Could it just be the lamp holder for some reason? Wiring harness? Do those go bad sometimes? It's such a simple piece of equipment I almost can't believe it would go bad.